The North Koreans who stand behind the country’s unified voice are historically-oriented, and may be responding now, sometimes reflexively, sometimes manipulatively, to events which happened decades ago. Not only that: historical touchstones have a way of changing, or of being reinterpreted. What was once obscure suddenly comes front and center.

Here’s what was also in the cargo hold, according to a new report by a Swedish arms-control institute:
* small arms and light-weapons ammunition
* night-vision equipment
* rocket-propelled grenades
* artillery ammunition for anti-tank guns

And here’s what it was likely for, according to the report: bolstering North Korea’s military capabilities—not for repairing and returning to Cuba.

The report, authored by Hugh Griffiths, a senior researcher and expert on arms trafficking with the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, will likely confirm the suspicions of many North Korea watchers, who greeted Cuba’s initial explanation with skepticism.

Mr. Griffiths, in fact, concludes that the shipment was “without a doubt a violation of United Nations sanctions on North Korea,” since it includes conventional artillery ammunition buried beneath the sugar.